Augustin Bubník

Augustin " Gustav " Bubník ( born November 21, 1928 in Prague ) is a former Czechoslovak ice hockey player and later coach. In 1950 he was imprisoned for political reasons, for five years.

Sporting career

Gustav Bubník began with the hockey on LTC Prague, the then dominant club in the Czech Republic. In 1948 he was one of the Czechoslovakian national team, in St. Moritz won the silver medal at the Winter Olympics and 1949 World Champion. In 1950 he was top scorer in the Czechoslovak Hockey League.

From 1955 Bubník again played hockey until 1962, then he worked until 1985 as manager of various teams. From 1966 to 1969 he was the first foreign coach in Finland.

Process and detention

In March 1950, the players of the Czechoslovak national team should travel to the Ice Hockey World Championships to London, however, were twelve of them arrested before departure. In a secret trial, they were accused of espionage and treason because they had allegedly planned to stay after the World Cup in the UK. All players except for Vladimír Zábrodský, who received only a short match suspension, were sentenced to prison terms of eight months to 15 years, which later led to the suspicion Zábrodský had betrayed his teammates. Also Bubnik, who was at that time 21 years old, was arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After five years he was indeed released from prison, but suffers his life to the health consequences of forced labor in the uranium mines of Jáchymov.

Miscellaneous

2008 Bubník was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Czech Ice Hockey Association. In October 2010, he ran unsuccessfully for election to the Czech Parliament.